Wednesday 5 January 2011

A new peak in global monthly oil production?

A couple of interesting posts appeared on The Oil Drum this week, discussing the latest oil production figures. It looks like November 2010 oil production may have exceeded the previous peak of July 2008. A couple of points to consider though:

  • The graphs on TOD still show that we're well and truly on the "bumpy plateau", with no steady ramping up of oil production in the way that there used to be pre-2005.
  • These figures are for the oil produced, but as EROEI falls, the actual oil available to consumers outside the oil industry falls, because the industry itself is consuming more oil to produce what it does.
 (graph from The Oil Drum)

Here's the articles from TOD:
New High of Liquid Fuel Production
Will 2011 be a rerun of 2008? (Longer version)

Mike

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